Spicy Shrimp Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce. Seared shrimp and rigatoni tossed with a super-quick spicy tomato cream sauce. Jazzed up with garlic, shallot, sun-dried tomatoes and white wine. Served with oregano bread crumbs and feta. Seriously, what’s not to like? It’s finger-licking good.
Shrimp pasta feels like such a treat. White wine and cream add sophistication and richness to the spicy tomato sauce. The crispy oregano bread crumbs and salty feta are a must. They’re the finishing touch, the icing on the cake. With just a few ingredients combined together, this is a weeknight dinner at its best, for sure. The sauce gets a nice spicy kick from the red pepper chili flakes, but you can make it extra spicy if you can handle the heat!
This is a tomato-based sauce with shrimp that’s great served over pasta, although the shrimp can be served up in a skillet and eaten with chunks of crusty bread.
Not a fan of feta? Use parmesan or burrata.
It’s a ridiculously easy recipe which makes it a perfect choice for a weeknight dinner. The recipe pretty much involves only a few steps. First, we make the bread crumbs, then we sear the shrimps. Next, we make the tomato sauce by sautéing the garlic, adding cream, red pepper flakes and sun-dried tomatoes.
In the meantime, cook the pasta. Drain. Finally, combine everything together. Done!
Let me guide you through the recipe with this step-by-step VIDEO.
Favorite shrimp recipes
- Spicy shrimp tacos with miso aioli slaw
- Sichuan shrimp stir fry with onions
- Garlic butter pasta with shrimp
Recipe Video
Spicy Shrimp Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 14 ounces rigatoni
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 1 can (400 ml/14 oz) crushed tomatoes
- ¾ cup low fat cream
- 4.5 ounces sun-dried tomatoes drained, oil reserved
- ½ cup dry white whine
- 1 tsp chili flakes more to taste
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- crumbled feta for serving
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
oregano breadcrumbs
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
Instructions
- Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving the ½ cup of the cooking water.
- In the meantime, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 3 tbsp oil reserved from sun-dried tomatoes. Once hot, add panko, cook, stirring for 4 minutes until toasted and golden. Add oregano and cook for 1 minute more. Remove from the skillet to a plate.
- Add 3 tbsp oil to the same skillet. Add shrimp, arrange in a single layer. Fry on high heat. Flip the shrimp over after 2 minutes and sear the other side until pink. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from skillet.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil, add garlic and shallot, sauté for 2 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up and stir in any brown bits from skillet bottom. Add white wine, cook over high heat until reduced and no raw alcohol aroma remains, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Stir in the cream and sun-dried tomatoes. Season with oregano, thyme, smoked paprika, chili flakes, fish sauce, salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes.
- Add the cooked shrimp and reheat gently on medium heat, 1 minute.
- Stir with pasta and serve with lots of crispy bread crumbs, feta and extra chili flakes. Enjoy!
What size can of crushed tomatoes…and what light cream– half n half or heavy cream? Excited to try this!
Thanks! It’s a 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, and I used light cream which contains 20% fat but you can use half-and-half. Happy cooking!
Your recipes look delicious.
Many thanks!
Fish Sauce?
yes, to lift the flavors
What’s the nutritional information?
What’s the nutritional information?
Hi Ruth, you can find the nutritional information on the bottom of the recipe card. Happy cooking!
Was that 1 lb of dry pasta or 1 lb cooked pasta? I used dry pasta and the sauce was too little. I barely got it to coat the pasta, nothing like the picture you have?
So sorry it turned out differently for you. The recipe calls for dry pasta, it’s possible that the sauce was too thick. I will add a note underneath the instructions.Thanks so much for your feedback and for trying the recipe.
Love all your recipes! Is there anything I can sub the wine for? Thanks!
Hi! You can use vegetable or chicken stock. Happy cooking!
SO delicious, I’ve made it so many times since I discovered this recipe!
Thank you Sabine! It makes me so happy to hear that!
We just returned from a week away and I had not gone to the store so looked in the freezer and saw some shrimp and knew that I also had pasta. I googled shrimp with pasta and when yours popped up and said “spicy”, I knew I had to give it a try. Ironically, I had everything else (almost) that your recipe calls for and put it together.
The only subs I did were that my frozen shrimp were already cooked so I added them at the end and instead of sun dried tomatoes, I used a Trader Joe’s sun dried tomato pesto. My husband is still raving about it. Says it’s the best pasta I’ve ever made. Thank you so much.
Yayyy Tammy! It makes me so happy to hear you both loved the recipe! Thanks for making it!